Here we go.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm going on my most ambitious British adventure yet-- It's going to put a smile on your face.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --meeting some of the finest chefs in the world-- Raymond Blanc.

James.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --cooking my way from the far south-- You've got beautiful blue eyes.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): --to the northernmost reaches of the land-- It's a magical experience.

Whoa!

You've got to do this.

It's amazing.

--and using some of the best produce you'll find anywhere.

It is a spectacular place, full of amazing people and amazing food.

This is going to be a bit special.

And some of the places require a little bit more effort to get to.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'll be traveling by land, air, and sea.

MAN: There.

Look.

Look.

- Dolphins.

MAN: Dolphins.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So join me as I explore the British Isles, from islands to highlands.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): Our journey in Northern Ireland continues as we head inland to the largest freshwater lake in the British Isles.

I'm exploring Lough Neagh and the surrounding countryside with my own mate and top chef, Paul Rankin.

PAUL: This is almost like the food heartland of Northern Ireland, you know?

This is the garden where things grow.

Great spuds, great orchards, great vegetables, great berries, all that sort of stuff is fabulous around here.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Lough Neagh is west of Belfast.

And with a diverse habitat, it's a haven for wildlife.

At around nine miles wide and 19 miles long, it's also a valuable source of fresh water and food.

First off, we're going to Tandragee.

Actually, I'll take you to a guy who actually grows wasabi.

What, Japanese wasabi?

PAUL: Japanese wasabi.

It's pretty cutting edge for here to be growing-- I'll try anything.

PAUL: --a Japanese vegetable in Northern Ireland.

So what's nice about what's happening in Northern Ireland now is we're getting a really adventurous generation.

So instead of just being Bramley apple producers, we have cider producers.

We have apple juice producers.

A thing called black butter in Northern Ireland, which is superb.

Which is unbelie-- that's using Armagh apples, isn't it?

PAUL: Armagh Bramley apples and spices, sugar, treacle cooked down.

JAMES: Oh, that is amazing.

PAUL: Superb thing.

Oh, James.

Argh!

You haven't done it again, have you?

PAUL: What do you mean, done it again?

JAMES (VOICEOVER): We're meeting father and son entrepreneurs Sean and Zak Kitson at their wasabi farm in their back garden.

Now, how on Earth did this all start?

Well, it was actually started by my son when he was about 14 years old.

It was your idea?

SEAN: Yeah, it's his idea.

It's actually Zak's idea, yeah, so.

Why wasabi?

You like the taste of it, or?

No, it's just, like, unusual.

Very unusual to be grown in-- In Ireland.

--in Ireland as well.

But I'm very happy that you did because I love the horseradish family.

It's not the horseradish family, though.

No.

SEAN: No, no.

I don't like horseradish, you see?

The difference between the horseradish and wasabi is that the active ingredient in here is thioisocyanate.

In horseradish, it's phenyl isocyanate.

They're the difference between.

Will you remember that?

I remember the taste of it.

But there is a distinct, massive difference in taste anyway.

- You would like this.

It's more, like, a sweeter taste.

You said you can eat the leaves?

JAMES: I want to have a look inside in a minute.

But how long does it take to get from-- what is-- you plant it as a seedling to the finished, finished article that you can sell?

ZAK: Takes up to three years.

JAMES: Years?

- Yeah, years.

JAMES: Three years?

And that's why it's so expensive, I guess.

250 pounds to 350 pounds a kilo.

That's truffle money.

Can we leave you to prep some so we can have a taste of it?

Yes.

JAMES: And then can you show us around and what's happening in there?

Is that all right?

SEAN: Yeah, we can do that, yes.

- Cool.

- Let's do it.

Let's have a look.

[calm music] I would say I don't know what to expect, but I've never seen it before.

I've never seen it growing.

Have you?

Never, never.

JAMES: So can we dig some of this up?

Yeah, yeah, we can dig it up.

I'm going to leave it with you.

At that price per kilo, I'll leave it with you.

SEAN: We can try and get this one out here.

You'd be amazed.

There could be 20 plants here.

JAMES: Really?

He's figuring it out.

He's figuring it out in his head.

That's about 1,500 quid.

So as you can see, there's that big one there.

JAMES: Green gold.

So these are all the ones we could sell, these.

JAMES: 50 quid?

50 pounds, yeah.

PAUL: Oh, here we go.

JAMES: Don't need to do too much.

That's all right.

So this one actually comes out purpley.

Yeah, because of the purple ring, you see?

Yeah.

Now, you have to wait for about five minutes or so for it to do its chemical reaction.

PAUL: Yeah, I'm your man.

I bet you don't do that.

Then mash it round your mouth.

[chuckles] SEAN: Put it all in.

PAUL: No, I'm not putting it all in.

James has put you up to that!

Swallow.

[laughs] It's nice.

It's not too bad.

You're crying over there, look.

No, I'm-- tears of joy.

SEAN: Right.

Tears of joy.

I love a bit of wasabi.

Actually, you know what it reminds me of?

ZAK: It's good.

It's not strong.

Put it into your mouth and swizzle it around.

Seriously, it's not.

JAMES: Do you know what, though?

You get flavor, you get a bit of heat, and then it goes.

SEAN: Yeah, it goes.

It clears your sinuses.

Cleans your palate.

I never thought I would be converted to the flavor of that in a back garden in Northern Ireland.

Hey, Paul, have some more.

- I'll have some more.

- Yeah, yeah.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): So while Paul recovers a bit, I've come 32 miles south of Lough Neagh to Slieve Gullion, the highest point in County Armagh.

[bright music] The Ring of Gullion-- a small selection of little hills.

Stunning.

You can see for miles.

And talking of stunning, this dish is amazing as well.

I'm gonna use some of this wasabi.

And what I'm gonna do is create a wonderful little light, simple dressing to go with this lovely little salmon.

And if you like sushi but you want to try something slightly different, this is the perfect recipe.

So what I'm gonna do is just peel this and then just grate it.

Now, what you do need really is one of these graters.

And if you roll this around over the grater, you get this paste from it as well.

You can see that almost straight away.

This is like rocket fuel.

We don't want too much of it.

And then for our dressing, you use a combination of soy.

And the citrus side of it, the vinegar comes in the form of this sort of stuff.

This is yuzu juice.

It's like a really fresh citrus.

Just a touch in there.

And this is the vinegar part of the dressing when you think about that.

When you taste it-- it's lovely.

It certainly wakes you up.

It's fabulous, particularly after a night out down there on the Guinness.

And then you take some lime.

Just give that a quick stir.

And that's really your dressing done.

So we can leave that to one side.

Meanwhile, turn our attention to our pan because I'm gonna cook my sesame seeds.

I've got some dark and I've got some white sesame seeds over here.

You can just put a bit of each in there.

And then, we're gonna toast in a nice hot, dry pan.

Now, I've also got some oil on here because what I'm gonna do is create a nice little tempura batter.

All you do is just get some sparkling water and corn flour, nothing else.

But what you're doing is creating a very, very sort of light batter.

You don't want it too thick.

That's the important bit.

I'm gonna take my spring onions.

And I'm gonna leave the root on the spring onions.

And just where they start to split, just cut it through there.

And just slice through.

And every slice that you do, just turn it a quarter and go again and try and make little thin strips all the way through.

So I'll show you one more.

So just cut it in half, turn it, half again, and keep doing that.

So you almost got this nice little flower part of it as it opens up.

Pop the spring onions in the batter.

Take the sesame.

We'll tip that in there.

We'll turn our attention now to the salmon bit.

And all around Ireland, we have amazing salmon.

So you can start at one end.

And I'll just show you.

I'll just cut this through here so you can see it a lot easier.

This is called a little bloodline in here.

You're trying to slice it and then lift it off before you cut into that bloodline.

So when you get to that stage, just lift the knife up a little bit.

And that's one slice.

[calm music] And we keep going.

And this is gonna take me about two or three minutes.

But it's a bit boring this bit, so enjoy the view.

♪ ♪ Just take your time to slice this nice and thin.

And once you get to that stage, we can grab our fritters.

Now it's important when you do these to do them in batches.

Just pop them straight in the fryer, very, very hot fryer.

You can hear that crisp up.

And these want to go in there for about 30 seconds.

And as they cook, they just open up.

It is great, this place.

You can come up here and enjoy the view.

You don't have to pay to get in.

You just drive in and stop off.

Right, look in here.

This is sesame oil.

Now, hardly ever, ever, ever do you cook with sesame oil.

But what we're trying to do with sesame oil is get it really, really hot 'cause what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna partly cook this fish with this sesame oil.

And then I've got some of this stuff as well.

You hardly ever see this as well.

This is mizuna leaf.

It tastes amazing as well, so a few bits of that.

Now, this is the one and only time, really, where you cook with sesame oil.

But when the oil gets hot enough and you put it on the fish and you can see it sizzling on the piece of fish, and it starts to partly cook it.

You can hear it sizzle on the piece of fish like that.

We can then turn our attention to this dressing as well 'cause this is this wasabi, the soy, and that wonderful little bit of yuzu juice, a touch of lime.

Put that with it as well.

It's an amazing combination, this.

But then, of course, I've got some sesame seeds.

And then, you can decorate it with some of these amazing spring onions, just for a nice little bit of texture.

[upbeat music] Mizuna leaf, few bits of that on it, and there you have it.

I didn't think I was gonna be cooking that on the top of a hill with that view.

But that is almost as pretty as that.

♪ ♪ Hurry up and take a picture before the rain comes.

Come on.

♪ ♪ [bright music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Today, I'm in Northern Ireland, traveling around Lough Neagh with my mate top chef, Paul Rankin.

You can tell an area that's good for produce, though, can't you?

You just have to look over the hedges.

You see this area for blackberries as well.

The bramble bushes are like grapevines.

They're absolutely dripping and heavy with berries.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And we've already sampled some very strong local wasabi.

You crying over there, look.

No, I'm-- tears of joy.

SEAN: Right.

- Tears of joy.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Yeah, right.

I've got another treat in store for Paul.

Because I'm gonna send you off to look at some bees.

Bees?

I don't like bees.

What is it you don't like about bees?

Well, you know how I am a bit accident prone?

Yeah.

Well, you know, accidents with bees, they're not a good thing.

Be great on camera, though, wouldn't it?

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): It would have looked good on camera, to be honest.

All right, I'm dropping Paul off south of Lough Neagh, near Portadown, to meet Jilly Dougan, who's part of the family at Yellow Door, a company who specialize in local produce.

PAUL: Jilly!

Paul.

Last time I was here, there was wild boar all around.

There was.

That's right.

PAUL: And now there's bees.

JILLY: And now there's bees.

PAUL: So what got you into bees?

JILLY: I think because-- somebody who's really into food, that-- and everything starts with something that's growing, and obviously, pollination is a big part of that.

So all the fruit, all the nuts, you know, they all need pollinators.

I just love the thought of it.

And I love the thought of getting some honey as well.

[calm music] Do I need to be afraid?

No, no, not today.

PAUL: Do I put my hood up?

JILLY: Yep.

PAUL: How many bees in a hive?

JILLY: There would be 50,000 bees.

PAUL: 50,000 in there?

JILLY: Yeah.

PAUL: Oh, here we go.

Here we go.

Look at that.

PAUL: So the honey is ready at the end of the summer, or at any time?

JILLY: People can take honey sort of June, July, August, September.

PAUL: How do you get it out and into the jars?

Well, we'll put the lid on these girls and come inside, and I'll show you.

PAUL: All right, yeah.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ JILLY: It's amazing that something as small as a bee can make all those substances, isn't it?

PAUL: Oh, it's incredible.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): The first thing Jilly does is scrape away the wax which the bees have used to seal the honey into the honeycomb and then into a hand-cranked centrifuge.

We need a bit of muscle now, Paul.

What do I do?

Just crank this jobby?

Yeah, that's it, not too fast.

Start off quite slowly.

It's quite relaxing then.

JILLY: Yeah.

PAUL: How many jars would you get out of one frame?

If it's a really good frame, there should be five pound of honey in it.

PAUL: So we don't see many bees in the winter.

What are they doing in the winter?

They'll make a ball, basically, around-- they'll have the queen in the middle.

So they protect her.

And they flap their wee wings to keep warm.

PAUL: And how many years does a queen last?

JILLY: Three to five years.

If they decide she's past her best or she's not laying enough eggs, they will decide to get rid of her.

They're quite brutal like that.

They're not as nice as I thought they were, huh?

JILLY: I think that might do.

Yeah?

JILLY: That might do, Paul.

OK.

Now, look at that.

Let me see.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, all the honey's run out.

JILLY: Pretty empty.

PAUL: That's pretty groovy, isn't it?

Isn't it just?

And now, these, We can put back on the beehives and let the bees go in and clear out all the rest of the honey.

And they can use that for themselves.

PAUL: So all you do then is transfer it from this, put it through the sieve-- Yep.

--which is basically just like an old flour sieve, isn't it?

- Yes.

And then it goes into this to put into jars.

That's it.

Simple as.

Wow, look at this massive big bucket of honey!

I love it.

That's chocka, chocka full of honey.

And then you just, woing!

So all we do is sterilized jar underneath.

Isn't that gorgeous?

PAUL: Oh, I just love it, Jilly.

I love it.

And these are your labels?

JILLY: These are labels.

We just hand-make the labels.

- Yeah?

Thanks very much, love.

You're very welcome.

PAUL: Nice to be back here.

♪ ♪ I love visiting Jilly.

Nothing at all to do with getting free honey.

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): Seeing Paul brave those bees and all that local produce truly inspired me.

For this recipe, I'm gonna use some of this amazing County Armagh honey to create a true classic, an apple pie.

But first of all, it's all about the pastry.

So I've got some flour here.

Now, in America, they actually freeze the flour and freeze the butter to get it as cold as possible.

But that's really important, particularly with the butter because when you rub the two together, it incorporates in the mix a lot better.

Now, the sugar that they use over there isn't caster sugar.

It's a little bit of icing sugar.

[calm music] Now, this does take time.

It really does.

But it is important.

Now, what you're looking for is, like, a crumble topping, really.

So once you get to this stage, we can throw in our eggs and then our water and give this a mix.

And we incorporate this lot together.

Now, don't worry about the pastry being soft at this stage.

It's just, basically, as the butter is warming up in your hands.

And do is just wash my hands.

♪ ♪ Because then what we gotta do is pop it in the fridge to set.

♪ ♪ And then, I've got some that has been in the fridge.

And just allow this to come back up just gradually to room temperature.

Now, it's important for this that you use about a quarter of the pastry for the base to make sure it's nice and thin.

The top part is always thicker.

So once you get the pastry there, we can then concentrate on our filling.

Now, our filling, I'm using two different types of apples for this.

I'm using Bramleys and eating apples.

You want the eating apples to be a nice little bit of sharpness to the apple.

That's the key with apple pie.

You don't want everything too sweet.

So once we get to that stage, take the apples, then we can chop them up.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ And then leave the apples to one side because now what we need to do is line our dish.

You just want a little bit of softened butter just to stop it sticking to the bottom of the dish.

And this is going to take a decent amount of time to cook in the oven.

But by rolling the pastry nice and thin, as the apples cook, the pastry won't get soggy.

♪ ♪ Because I'm not going to cook the apples beforehand, the whole thing is going to get cooked together.

When you're happy with that, roll it over the top and then over again.

Then we just pop that into the bottom.

Press our pastry to the edge.

So once we get to that stage, we can then concentrate on our other bit of pastry.

Now, it's important with shortcrust pastry not to overwork it.

But also, if you put too much flour in, all the time, you're just toughening up the pastry.

Every time you roll it, turn it.

But remember, this time, the top is a lot thicker, almost twice as thick as the bottom.

And then we can concentrate on our filling.

Our filling is really simple.

We just take some sugar.

And I've got a little bit of golden caster sugar here.

Mix all this lot together, and then you pile the apples in the pie.

When you think you've got enough apples in, put more in because as this cooks, it's basically going to stew down anyway.

A little bit of egg wash, and just to add a nice little sweetness, we're gonna take some of this amazing Armagh honey over the top.

And then, take your pastry, roll this over, and then roll this on the top.

As you roll it on the top, lift it away from the pie, though.

Don't press it on the top.

Now, before you crimp it, what I like to do is just remove the outside of the pastry like that because I'm gonna use that for the top.

Take some egg wash, and I've just used egg yolk for this, rather than whole egg.

I just think egg yolk takes a nice little sort of glaze to it as well.

Now, by doing this and egg washing it first means that you don't have to egg wash it again and get into all these difficult little corners now.

I can then just concentrate on the little garnish.

I'm just gonna create a few little leaves.

So I'm not using a template for this, just a knife.

♪ ♪ Whatever shape you want.

Use the side of a knife, just create little leaves, nice and simple.

Egg wash these, and then just pop these on the top.

And then, finally, before it goes in the oven, you want to sprinkle this with just a little bit of caster sugar over the top.

It's really important that it cooks for about an hour because you want to cook those apples.

So reduce the temperature down, and then kind of leave it in the oven.

But there's your apple pie.

You just pop it in there.

And what happens is, as the apples start to cook, it just basically just sits down.

And that thicker pastry just holds it all together.

If the pastry's too thin, it'll just crack.

Now, I'm gonna serve this with just a simple bit of whipped cream but with the addition of some of this honey just to flavor it.

♪ ♪ It's pretty good, that.

♪ ♪ This is not a pie where you're gonna do a slice of.

This is a deep apple pie, with the apples cooked like that, and the cream to go alongside.

And there you have it, a beautiful deep pan apple pie with Armagh honey cream.

The classics never go away.

♪ ♪ [upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Today, I'm in Northern Ireland, traveling around the Lough Neagh area with my mate, Mr.

Paul Rankin.

Earlier, he discovered some amazing local honey.

Look at this massive big bucket of honey!

I love it.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Now, I'm off on my own to an establishment that's taken advantage of everything this area has to offer.

JAMES: You don't have to travel far to find a good place to eat because the produce is so spectacular.

But there's one restaurant near here that I'm en route now to that I've heard about because it brines quite a bit of their food.

And that's become quite a trendy thing over the years.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm meeting award-winning chef, Chris McGowan at Wine & Brine in Moira, County Down.

[calm music] Chris spent 20 years working with some of the UK's most acclaimed chefs, then returned home to set up what has become one of the country's most critically acclaimed eateries.

JAMES: Hard at work.

How are you doing, boss?

- Hi, James.

How are you?

- Good to see you.

Now, tell me about this place.

How long has it been open?

It's been open four years, four years in December.

Right.

So the ethos here, the wine I get.

Tell me about the brine.

It's about using old techniques that maybe have fallen out of fashion.

So do you brine all the meats?

All the premium cuts, we don't brine.

Things like short rib, things like lamb rumps, things that are unfash-- which would be perceived as unfashionable pieces of meat, we use brines to kind of naturally tenderize them and impart flavor into them.

I mean, for you, it must be like the ultimate larder around here.

I mean, the produce is amazing.

Coming back here, I knew the produce was great.

I mean, we talked about brine.

This is a brine that we use here.

This is a natural whey from a cheesemaker that we get locally.

So we're adding rosemary.

We're adding a bit of coriander seed, a bit of fennel seed, a little bit of lemon, some confit garlic, and a little bit more salt.

And then we just bring it up, infuse it, let it cool, and then drop the lamb in.

And it adds those flavors into the meat.

So it gives you that kind of point of difference.

So what are you gonna cook for me then?

CHRIS: I'm gonna cook you a lovely rump of Mourne lamb simply with broad beans and peas and a lovely, little piece of confit lamb breast.

- I'm looking forward to it.

- And that's it, you know?

- I'll grab a seat.

- No problem.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Chris starts by barbecuing the lamb, which he left to tenderize in the brine overnight.

CHRIS: Now we're gonna add some broad beans and peas with a little bit of parsley cream and just warm it up.

We have some little lamb breast which we have confit and then pressed overnight like a little chop.

So we're just gonna stick those straight onto the stove.

This is a little piece of lamb sweetbread.

Put a little bit of garlic butter on top so it's like a little sweetbread Kiev.

We wrap them in breadcrumbs, and we're just going to deep fry these now.

Really beautifully barbecued piece of lamb, you know?

It's stunning.

And we're nearly there.

What we're gonna do is just scatter some of the broad beans and peas around the plate, just quite loosely, quite rustic.

We're gonna put a little bit of yogurt.

It comes from the farm that we get the whey from.

So what we do, we smoke this over rice, tea, and sugar, so it gives a nice little smokiness.

All we have to do now is cut the lamb.

We're gonna finish it with a little bit of lamb sauce and one lovely little broccoli leaf which we get grown for us locally.

So James, this is the dish I prepared for you.

It's a Mourne mountain lamb.

JAMES: Wonderful!

With local broad beans, peas, and smoked yogurt.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

- Enjoy.

- Thank you.

It certainly looks good.

And it smells good.

You just know it's gonna taste good.

Interestingly enough, this smoked yogurt.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Well, that's delicious.

Now, it's interesting.

You hear a lot of chefs say, he's a proper cook.

Well, surely everybody's a proper cook.

Well, in cheffy world, a proper cook is this.

♪ ♪ It's proper cooking.

It's confident cooking.

It's relying on great, quality ingredients, which he has right on his doorstep, but cleverly put together.

And what's interesting, it just doesn't stop with this dish.

I managed to grab today's lunch menu.

Excuse me.

I'm getting old.

I've gotta put the glasses on.

But on here, it just shows a little homage to this area as well.

You've got fishcakes with seaweed greens.

You've got cured and torch herrings with crumpets, lovely lemon sole, steak pie with burnt onion, short rib of beef, roast wood pigeon.

There's not one thing on this menu that I wouldn't eat-- ♪ ♪ --twice.

That's my problem.

What a great place.

And let me tell you, if I had a wall full of local heroes, Chris would be right up there with them.

♪ ♪ Now, this is a dish based on what I had to eat at that restaurant-- wine and a bit of brined chicken.

I'm gonna serve this with gnocchi.

And I had a herb gnocchi there with good old Irish potatoes.

So the first thing we're gonna do is brine the chicken.

So brine is basically just a mixture of water and salt.

Then what we're gonna do is just flavor this with a little bit of fresh thyme.

Now, you can, if you wanted to, heat this up and then cool it down.

That way, you'll get all the salt dissolved into it anyway.

But a few peppercorns, and then give it a quick mix.

And that's a simple brine solution.

It really is as easy as that.

Now, this is a free-range corn-fed chicken.

But you still want to incorporate a little bit of moisture into this.

And so often, chicken nowadays, when they're roasted, can be quite dry.

So putting it in brine will help it massively.

Now, what you need to do now is pop this in the fridge, ideally overnight.

And then what you end up with is this fantastic piece of chicken.

And then what you can do is get a little bit of butter over the top, bit of black pepper.

No need to put any salt in this because, obviously, it's been brined anyway.

And then, set the oven to 220 degrees.

So it's quite hot oven.

This is only a small chicken, so it's only gonna take an hour to cook.

Every now and then, just keep basting it, but as simple as that.

Just quickly wash my hands.

Now, while our chicken's roasting, we're gonna turn our attention to the gnocchi.

I'm gonna flavor this with a few herbs.

So we've got some tarragon and a bit of parsley.

Nice and fine.

[upbeat music] A little bit of potato.

What I've done with these is basically just bake them, scooped out, put through a potato ricer, and then we use an egg, one whole egg, and then some flour.

♪ ♪ Some black pepper.

[grinding] And a nice amount of salt, and then Parmesan cheese.

I've even had gnocchi with a little bit of blue cheese in there, but just some grated Parmesan.

Now, as you mix it all in, it creates the classic gnocchi.

So what the egg and the flour is gonna do is create, like, a little glue.

But the potatoes need to be dry.

That's why it's really important to really bake them first.

Now, you can do fancy shapes with a fork, that kind of stuff.

But I'm gonna keep it really simple for this one.

So a little bit of flour and roll it out.

To make it easier, you can split this up.

And you can just simply cut this into pieces.

So with the gnocchi now, to simply cook it, you want some boiling, salted water.

All you simply do is just chuck it in, and it only takes about a minute to cook.

All you're waiting for them to do is rise to the top.

Soon as rise to the top, take them out.

[upbeat music] OK, now, these can come out.

Put them onto a little tray.

I'm actually gonna pan fry them and make a nice little sauce out of this as well.

♪ ♪ So this is the brine chicken that's been roasted.

And I've just allow it to cool slightly just to rest, only for about 10 minutes.

♪ ♪ Now, I can tell straightaway when a chicken has been brined prior to roasting because the amount of moisture that comes out of it.

It's not dry.

It's certainly not dry.

You can also tell by tasting it.

It's lovely and moist.

Seasoning is spot on.

That just a little bit of salt in the water makes all the difference.

Now, to simply serve this, what you can do is you can just heat up a pan, get a little knob of butter.

The pan needs to be hot, which that is.

Get the butter golden brown before we add our gnocchi.

♪ ♪ You get a nice bit of color on it.

And you get that with that foaming butter.

Just look at that.

It's lovely in the pan.

We're gonna think about finishing this as a sauce, as everything.

So we're just gonna use the existing butter from the pan as well, a little bit of white wine, together with some tarragon.

We're gonna continue that theme with the brine into this.

♪ ♪ As soon as you get the gnocchi nicely colored, little knob more butter, and then just a glug of white wine because we're creating a nice little sauce to go with this.

[sizzling] Pepper, pinch of salt, keep the pan on the high heat.

It all just turns into this wonderful buttery wine sort of sauce to go with our chicken.

And this is ready.

So you take it straight off of here and pop it straight on the plate like that.

How good does that look?

Parmesan cheese over the top.

And then all that's left to do is pop your brine chicken in amongst it all.

So there you have it, a real simple dish.

Easy to prepare, easy to cook-- gnocchi using Irish potatoes, brine chicken that you can all enjoy with a nice glass of white wine.

Look at that.

♪ ♪ [bright music] ♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm in Northern Ireland traveling around the British Isles biggest freshwater lake, Lough Neagh, with my mate, Paul Rankin.

PAUL: This is almost like the food heartland of Northern Ireland, you know?

This is the garden where things grow.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): And in Lough Neagh, the things that grow are fish, and in particular the, Lough Neagh eel.

♪ ♪ [calm music] JAMES: I'm going to see some eels.

You're going for a special treat.

I've arranged for you to go in a microlight.

Oh!

Apparently, I can't do it.

There's something about weight and balance and stuff like that.

I've had too many-- too much, um-- too much to eat.

♪ ♪ You'll enjoy it.

It's a great way to see the coastline.

PAUL: It's a good way to shut me up.

I'll tell you, I'm worried now.

I can't believe-- do I have to do it?

Yeah.

- I do not have to.

- Yeah, you do.

You do.

[upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm dropping Paul at Northern Ireland Microlights to meet pilot Ken Crompton, who has 40 years' flying under his belt.

PAUL: Ken.

Hi, Paul.

Nice to see you.

You cannot imagine my relief that it's not, like, bamboo strapped together with a sheet over the top and a wee engine.

We can arrange that if you want.

No, I don't.

I don't.

No.

This looks flimsy, but good.

Shall we hop in?

KEN: Yep.

Which side am I on?

You take the pilot's side 'cause I hope you'll be doing most of the flying.

- Oh, really?

It's too hard work.

PAUL: So I don't even know which side the pilot's side is.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): This'll be interesting.

Meanwhile, I'm off to catch some eels.

Now, before you all turn over and you think, "I can't eat them," you've got to try them because the first time I tried smoked eel, it was a taste revelation, really.

And the eels here are exported all over the world.

They are that good.

I'm meeting seasoned fisherman, Gerry McNally, and his son, Daniel.

They're part of the Lough Neagh Fishermen's Cooperative, the largest recognized producer of wild caught eel in Europe.

How are you doing, gents?

How are you doing, Jimmy?

How are you doing?

Welcome on board, Jimmy.

JAMES: I'm looking forward to this.

GERRY: There's a coat there, James.

Thank you, buddy.

Yeah, it's a bit windy this morning.

Yeah, exactly.

♪ ♪ Dear Lord, please keep me safe.

♪ ♪ PAUL (VOICEOVER): So James has stitched me up here completely.

He's off fishing on the lough.

I love fishing.

I would gladly do that.

♪ ♪ He's sending me up in something called a microlight to get a different perspective of Lough Neagh.

Now, basically, I'm afraid.

I don't want to do this.

♪ ♪ There you are.

That's the captain of the ship to you.

JAMES: That's the captain?

GERRY: Yeah.

She travels all the time with us.

JAMES: Why this lough and why eel?

GERRY: Well, we stock the lough here every year with young elvers.

JAMES: Yeah.

GERRY: It takes an elver from when you put it in to maybe 12 to 14 years of age before we are able to catch it.

Right.

The lough is rich in food, and has plenty of fry in it.

There's plenty of perch in it.

There's roach in it.

There's bream in it.

And they're all come wee fry, and that eel lives on them.

JAMES: And you export it all around the world?

GERRY: All exported all over the world, yeah.

So tell me how you cook yours.

The best way we would have done the eel was just to cook them on the pan.

With a bit of butter?

I don't put nothing in the pan.

Cut them into two-inch chunks, and then they fry in their own oil.

JAMES: And you still eat it?

Still eat the eels, but I would eat the eels six days a week if I had to.

Six days a week?

What do you eat on the seventh day?

Seventh day, I would take maybe a wee bit of beef or something because they give the former a wee bit of a difference.

[laughter] JAMES: I wonder how Paul's getting on up there.

James, Hello.

JAMES: I can't believe that he's actually flying.

When I told him about it, he was a bit nervous.

♪ ♪ But I'm nervous for him, to be honest with you.

♪ ♪ GERRY: This is our marker here coming forward.

Just there, is it?

GERRY: Yeah.

JAMES: So how long's the line.

The line works out nearly a mile long.

Right.

GERRY: We used to have four of them a day, James, 1,600 hooks.

JAMES: And all pulled up by hand?

All pulled in by hand, yeah.

That's a perch.

They go to Switzerland.

Switzerland.

- Really?

Yeah.

JAMES: You've done this a few times before, haven't you?

GERRY: Oh, yeah.

All my life, James.

JAMES: He's making it look easy.

GERRY: There's a pretty good one here coming.

Look at that.

GERRY: Yeah, there's your Lough Neagh eel.

JAMES: So that's a proper Lough Neagh eel?

That's a proper Lough Neagh eel there, yeah.

Where do you go on holiday?

Here.

BOTH: [laughs] GERRY: That's the brown eel.

JAMES: Man, this is a hard life.

GERRY: There, James, look.

JAMES: That's a pollan.

- Yeah.

It's warm!

They're a fresh water herring.

Apparently, this eats amazing.

GERRY: Yeah.

I'm having one of these.

You'll have to hide them on yourself.

JAMES: Yeah.

You just don't know when to stop eating them.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): I can't wait for my first pollan.

It's a type of freshwater herring.

PAUL: Wheeey!

JAMES (VOICEOVER): I think Paul's happy to be back on terra firma.

Hey, that's very smooth.

Oh, I like that.

[laughs] We made it.

We made it.

I will never forgive James Martin for this, never!

That's a good catch, James.

Yeah?

We'll head back to shore now and put the pan on.

Exactly.

Sounds good to me.

Sounds good, James.

Back to my job, I think.

GERRY: Might get your faces washed again a wee bit going in again, but.

You might get your faces washed on the way back.

Might get your faces washed.

That's a fisherman's expression that means, it's gonna be rough.

You never have to wash your face in the morning when you're a fisherman.

JAMES: [laughs] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Well, Paul, the flying idea was the director's fault.

I think I've got a way of getting my own back.

This'll teach him.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES: These will literally be exported today.

GERRY: They'll be in Holland tonight.

Unbelievable.

So, as I said, we take the small one out, the likes of that one there, they'll be thrown back to the lake again.

Right.

GERRY: So they're caught today, and by evening time, they'll have reached their destiny.

Well, I'll leave you to sort out the rest.

I'll go cook some, all right?

OK, James.

About 15 minutes, I'll need you to taste.

Right, all the best to you.

Look forward to it.

♪ ♪ JAMES: Now, I thought long and hard about what to do with this eel.

And we've got two different types of eel.

We've got the fresh eel, and I've got smoked eel.

You'll generally buy it like this, really.

This is a good way to start, I think, if you want to try it.

And the sauce, simple butter sauce, but I'm gonna flavor it with some bacon because bacon and eel tastes amazing.

So what I'm gonna do is just take a nice little bit of smoked bacon.

And it needs to be smoked bacon for this to get the flavor out of it.

And what we're gonna do is, we fry this off first because we get the nice little color and taste from it.

A tiny bit of oil to start with, not too much, and pop our bacon in.

[bright music] [sizzling] And I'm actually gonna do two dishes with this, one of which is a little fish cake with smoked eel.

The other one, I'm using the fresh eel with this amazing pollan and just barbecue it, but still serve it with the same sauce.

While that's happening, we can grab some shallot, we chop this all up.

We can then start to wilt down our shallot as well.

At the same time, we can then make our little fish cakes, really.

Nice and easy, I've just got some potatoes over here.

Egg yolk, that's gone in there, salt and pepper, a little bit of salt, and then some lovely spring onions.

[calm music] Chuck the spring onions in.

♪ ♪ What I'm going to do now is add some of this lovely smoked eel.

It really is fabulous.

Get your hand in and mix this all together because this is going to go brilliantly with this little simple sauce.

Mold it all up into a little ball like that.

And then, we use this classic combination of seasoned flour, beaten egg, and some breadcrumbs.

Keep your eye on your bacon, which is not far off.

Now, at this moment in time, we can deglaze it with a little bit of white wine.

You can use a touch of vinegar like that.

Meanwhile, we can go back to our nice little fish cakes and then into our flour, and then into your egg, roll it around the beaten egg like that, and then back in the breadcrumbs.

Once it's in the crumb, lift it out onto here.

Now, just use a touch of double cream.

And what the double cream will do-- it nearly flew away-- is actually start to stabilize this sauce.

So leave that cooking away.

What I'm gonna do is just, basically, just serve this nice and simply with a little bit of cabbage, a little bit of spring cabbage, but also some of this.

I grabbed some of this from a market en route here.

This is soup celery.

It's quite strong but brilliant.

A few knobs of butter in the pan.

We'll pop our cabbage in and a little bit of celery.

[playful music] And then this is kind of the bit with a butter sauce that shocks people.

It's got butter in it, just a little bit.

Didn't really shock me, but.

Just when you think you've had enough, you add a little bit more.

Can't make this with margarine.

It has to be, has to be butter.

And if you whisk it all together, you create this amazing sauce.

You can take our eel fishcakes and pop these in.

Now, it's advisable, really, not to deep fry when it's raining.

But look, what you do end up with is you end up with a nice smoked eel fish cake.

Look at that.

♪ ♪ Before we serve these, I'm still gonna serve it with a sauce.

So I'm going to get this stuff, this lovely pollan and just simply cook this straight on the barbecue.

And the same thing with the eel, I'm just, basically, just gonna chop this up and pop this too straight on the barbecue.

This is gonna take about three or four minutes to cook.

♪ ♪ We're gonna take some fresh chives-- ♪ ♪ In our sauce.

Now, you can see what happens.

Look, it thickens up.

It's a bit like your arteries when you're eating this sauce.

That's what should happen.

♪ ♪ I'm just gonna take our fish, this beautiful bit of fresh pollan.

Look at this!

Gorgeous bit of fish.

You can finish this off with a touch of lemon squeezed over the top, fresh lemon juice.

♪ ♪ And you've got this sauce for one, a few bits of these cabbage and green down here, this gorgeous fresh pollan, simply cooked.

You don't need to do anything else with it.

Beautiful bit of eel on there as well.

And then the other dish, using the same sauce, these fishcakes.

Cabbage just as a little nest.

♪ ♪ You see, there you have it-- the same sauce, this lovely pollan which is simply cooked on the barbecue with this wonderful eel, and then this, the smoked eel fishcake all from out there, apart from the butter.

That's from a supermarket.

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): And guess who's back now the hard work's done and the food's ready.

PAUL: Boys, come on in.

We've got a feed for you here.

That's what you call a feed in Northern Ireland, eh?

GERRY: Oh, that's great all together.

You wouldn't believe that was caught a couple hours ago.

[upbeat music] PAUL: Mm.

GERRY: You can taste the eel there.

- Yeah?

- Lovely.

Aye.

JAMES: Is it all right?

Oh, 10 out of 10.

JAMES: Is it?

Aye.

When are you coming back?

JAMES: When I get warmed up.

[laughter] What a day!

And I will be back.

Just love this place.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪